Reddit reviews Marvel Heroic Roleplay Basic Game

Ah. It is considered by many to be one of the best supers rpg, it came a couple of years ago, but the publisher got the Marvel license taken from them. Here is a link to the game.

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167

Margaret Weis is supposedly coming out with a generic setting for the rules late next year, called Heroic Role-playing.

It also uses the same system that a few other great new games have been using...Smallville, Leverage, Cortex Plus Hackers Guide, and Firefly (not the Serenity RPG, that was something different).

It gets mentioned A LOT on here, and I would recommend checking it out if you have ever wanted comic book super heroes.

For something slightly different... I'm going to throw my vote behind Cortex Plus.

I've DM'd a dozen games of the Cypher System, a half dozen of SWN, and more Fate and Savage Worlds than I can count. Through all of them, I feel like I've been looking for something else.

I'm not going to lie, I've only started really wrestling with the Cortex Plus system. But it hits all the high notes.

A few big cons up front: It doesn't have a generic version (and in fact, as far as I can tell, it barely has three generic versions -> Action, Dramatic, Heroic). Its publisher, Margaret Weis Productions, seems like a borderline defunct company. Its rulebooks tend to be a little heavy on the fluff and a little light on the organization. And lastly, it maybe doesn't have the forum-posting cachet that Fate and Savage Worlds does (mostly because, with MWP's absence from the internet, there's no real home for discussion).

BUT! I'm still going to recommend it, I still think it's worth it. It was essentially written by Evil Hat (I mean, it wasn't, except, you know, it seems like everybody but Fred Hicks was involved, and he kinda-sorta came up with the Marvel Heroic initiative system). It's just a fantastic set of systems by some fantastic people.

It's crunchy enough to be adjudicatable without a lot of hand-waving by the GM (my biggest complaint about Fate, a system I love). But it's light and fluffy, and can handle most genres. (My gut is that, like all systems with a lot of player->narrative control, it would suffer a little in the horror genre.)

I'd recommend taking a look at the Firefly RPG, as it is the closest iteration to what you're looking for. Spaceship battles and light psychics out of the box. Cyber-technology and alien races handled the same way Fate would - a rules-independent description on the character sheet - but less thinking about metacurrency as a way to make things relevant. Depending on how crunchy you want to go, powerful psychics could either be more rules-independent descriptors (as in Dramatic and Action Cortex Plus), or a robust suite of powers with SFX and Limits (which you'd have to create, but I feel like MHR does Marvel powers well, so you can probably do whatever you need to).

Jesus Christ, /u/CitizenKeen, you're thinking to yourself. What a wall of text. And you know what, you're right. BUT. I wrote all this so you could get a sense of how excited I am, and I think you should take a peak, especially if you're thinking something narrative like Fate or Cypher. I want to make sure you understand the pitfalls, but, for whatever it's worth, I have extensive experience with every system in this thread, and I vote Cortex Plus.

Amazon still has some copies left. They are less than $14.
Link


I highly recommend it. It is the only supers game I've played that allows you to accurately play the character concept you envision without compromise. Plus, it is a lot of fun.

Marvel Heroic

An excellent game, that captures the feel/flow/style of comic books.
https://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1504894004&sr=8-1&keywords=marvel+heroic

Nicely done, although I do have to wonder why they're not playing Marvel Heroic Roleplaying.

So jealous (and happy) that such a thing exists for some kids/schools these days.

Do you have any of the FFG Star Wars system books? Highly recommended if not.

The main thematic gap I see is moar "supers" systems. For that I personally like the HERO system - for its customizability. Though we just started a homebrew Marvel heroic roleplaying game system game - which uses the Cortex system - and it's pretty awesome too for a more narrative approach.

I'd check out the Marvel Heroic RPG (I'm starting to feel like a shill for this company, I've brought this game up a ton on this subreddit).

It's super simple to learn (both to run and play), it's got a ton of source material (all of the Marvel universe), there are tons of fan made characters and villains to use (here), if your players have seen any of the Marvel movies (especially the Avengers) then it'll be really easy to get them to start role playing (they know how Tony Stark is supposed to act).

It's a ton of fun, and really emphasizes working together to create awesome comic book actions scenes over getting your character to "win". Also, the core rulebook is less than $15 on amazon, and includes a mini event to get you started.

Every single time I've run or played this game has been a blast, and I've come away with amazing stories from every session.

Marvel released a roleplaying game earlier this year, I think. I haven't tried it, but I have heard good things.

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying Game

I think there's also a Civil War expansion.

Marvel Heroic!

It is the best comicbook supers rpg ever made. And is cheap on Amazon. http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1450881916&sr=8-1&keywords=marvel+heroic

Marvel Heroic Roleplaying is a pretty solid supers game. It's out of production, but you can grab a copy from Amazon.com for under $30.

I recommend Marvel Heroic Roleplaying. Obviously not a fantasy setting (though easily refluffable into one). Character creation is pretty free-form, though there is a way to randomly generate a character if you like. Powers bring quite a few options at any given moment. It was made with one-shots in mind, too. Character advancement is very non-traditional, you don't level up your powers constantly. You might gain access to new powers temporarily, or new resources, and some of these you can make permanent, but that's not the major thrust of character advancement.

But the biggest thing this has going for it is how much it draws out the personality of each character. Each roll is affected by a personality trait or characteristic, so you know with what attitude you are acting, e.g. Spider-Man has a "Wisecracking" die to add to his dice pool. Whether it's sarcasm, guilt-ridden melodrama, rage, or any other emotion, it feeds directly into your rolls. I've never seen a game where characters are so alive, even during combat. It's even easier when playing one of the many pre-made Marvel characters because they all have big personalities.

The downside is it obviously focuses on action set pieces. It can do other things, like anything else, but like any super hero story, the meat of it is combat. Honestly that's not much different from most games being recommended here.

PDF above is less than $8. It's worth it. If you want even more options, the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide Covers the basic rules of this plus two other sister systems (Action and Dramatic - the former for somewhat more realistic action genres, the latter for TV drama-style games a la Smallville, Supernatural, even Firefly). It gives a ton of advice and optional rules for modeling different dynamics in games, all using the same basic system. It covers every genre imaginable, for less than $14. Also worth it.

Just my opinion, of course, but I think you would find at least MHR quite to your liking.

Risus and Dungeon World are about what you'll get under your requirements. I'd spring the $15 for a copy of Marvel Heroic Roleplaying (and the Cortex Plus Hacker's Guide is a godsend) or $25 for FATE Core as both are very quick, loose systems.

Shoestring gaming, though, still Risus. The man Risus material uses stick figures for art, so that goes to show you how simple and cheap it is.

http://deadgentlemen.com/projects/demon-hunters-series/demon-hunters-rpg/

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167

http://www.amazon.com/Iron-Kingdoms-RPG-Core-Rules/dp/1933362898

http://www.l5r.com/rpg/

http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Rage-Mark-Jones/dp/1480055395/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1413792088&sr=8-1&keywords=worlds+of+rage

Well, it's not very hard to build your own. And day one was 2 days ago :p

http://www.amazon.com/Marvel-Heroic-Roleplay-Basic-Game/dp/1936685167/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1330645978&sr=8-1

You're welcome.

You can also find a couple of other sheets on here : http://forum.rpg.net/showthread.php?615591-Lost-Files-of-Marvel!

I think Deadpool is on page 33 or 34...